Encouraging a Growth Mindset
Students in Special Education are sometimes faced with more challenges than other students. This page offers ideas on how to help children achieve a growth mindset.
Dr. Carol Dweck, who popularized the idea of a Growth Mindset, encourages parents and teachers to help children move from a Fixed Mindset to a Growth Mindset.
She suggests that if a student moves from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset, they can improve the level of frequency of their accomplishments.
Here are some techniques based on her research for how to encourage students in Special Education to begin thinking positively, change their learning attitude, learn to persevere, and develop confidence in their abilities.
- Always teach and model a positive attitude. One of the best ways to teach a child is to show by doing. As you are working through a challenge of your own, speak out loud as you work through your thinking process on how to tackle the problem. Children learn this mental process and can begin to use it themselves.
- Making mistakes is a good thing! Teach your child that failure is an opportunity to learn. When a child makes a mistake, encourage them to go back and figure out what they did wrong. When they do this, they will learn the right thing to do instead.
- Provide situations that are challenging, but attainable. Encourage your child to try something that might just be a little bit beyond their reach and help them develop a plan for completion. Coach your child through the process of thinking through the issue, developing small steps to solve the problem, and then taking steps to implement the problem.
- Celebrate small achievements or milestones. Some challenges children face cannot be solved instantly. They take time, effort, and perseverance. After the child develops a plan, encourage them to analyze their progress and celebrate when they accomplish one of the smaller milestones.
- Embrace difficult moments. Teach children to be honest with themselves when something is difficult. But help them learn to switch their mindset from “I can’t do this” to “what can I do to solve this?”
- Help your child understand how to cope with constructive criticism. It is important for children to understand that, sometimes, it is necessary for someone else to point out areas of improvement so the child can learn. Change the focus of the feedback from being critical to being helpful.
- Teach the power of “yet”. The word “yet” can completely change the focus from the problem being negative, difficult, or unachievable, to something that is positive and achievable. For example, change “I can’t do this” to “I can’t do this, yet”. This tells the child that although they can’t do something, now, with a little hard work and dedication, they will be able to do it at some point. This grows their confidence and belief in themselves that if they stick with something, it can be possible to be successful.
For more information on helping a child achieve a growth mindset, you can visit these resources:
10 Ways Teachers Can Instill a Growth Mindset in Students
https://www.prodigygame.com/main-en/blog/growth-mindset-in-students/
“Growth Mindset vs. Fixed Mindset”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1CHPnZfFmU
